



IRSONAL REMINISCENCES 
" .RTYRED PRESIDENT ^>? 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 




BY HIS NEIGHBOR AND 
INTIMATE FRIEND . ' . ' 

DR. WILLIAM JAYNE 



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FOREWORD 



FOREWORD 



OF THE 

GRAND ARMY HALL AND MEMORIAL ASSOCIATION 
OF ILLINOIS. 



The following pages contain the address made by 
Dr. William Jayne to the Grand Army Hall and 
Memorial Association of Illinois, at the Public Hall of 
that Association in Chicago, February 12th, 1900, 
during the Annual Exercises held in honor and in 
recognition of the Birthday of 

ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

Dr. Jayne is a native and resident of Springfield, 
Illinois, and was a neighbor, political and social friend 
of Abraham Lincoln from 1836 until the latter's death 
in 1865. 

The Doctor was educated at Illinois College, and 
is a member of the Phi Alpha Literary Society of that 
College. He was largely responsible for the delivery 
to this Society by Mr. Lincoln of the lecture to which 
he refers in these reminiscences. 

He was elected a State Senator in the Springfield 
Senatorial District at the November election, i860, 
becoming at that time a leading Republican, and has 
so continued until the present. 

After Mr. Lincoln became President he appointed 
Dr. Jayne the first Territorial Governor of the Dako- 
tas, which important place he filled with distinguished 



ability. After serving as Governor he resumed the 
practice of his profession at Springfield, and has con- 
tinued the same with marked success up to the present 
time. During his long and eventful career he has 
been actively interested in public affairs. For several 
years he has been and still is President of the 
valuable Lincoln Library at Springfield, for the build- 
ing of which the philanthropic and large-hearted An- 
drew Carnegie donated the sum of $75,000. . 

There are now living few men who knew Lincoln 
as well or who enjoyed his sincere confidence, trustful 
and continuing friendship, as did Dr. Jayne. 

The following address consists largely of the per- 
sonal experiences, observations and reflections of an 
educated, trustworthy and devoted friend of the Great 
Emancipator. 

FRANCIS A. RIDDLE, President, 
Gra?id Army Hall atid J^Iernorial Association 
April, 1900. 



PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 



MARTYRED PRESIDENT 



Abraham Lincoln 



BY HIS NEIGHBOR AND 
INTIMATE FRIEND 

DR. WILLIAM JAYNE 
W 



An Address 
DELIVERED BY DR. JAYNE 

TO THE 

GRAND ARMY HALL AND MEMORIAL ASSOCIATION 
February 12, 1900 



published by the 

Grand Army Hall and Memorial 

Association 



WSfVa-M «Sa» 



Copyright by William Jayne, 1908. 
All Rights Reserved. 



imOBLS(A.V>. 



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^t)raf)am l^incoln 



Vete7Hins of the War 

for the Preservation of the Union. 

Ladies and Gentlemen: 

It is not my purpose to indulge to-day in any ex- 
tended relation of the justly celebrated political debate 
between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas 
which took place in 1858, or concerning Mr. Lincoln's 
administration of the Federal Government from 1861 
to 1865. Both of these events are Vv^ell known to 
every intelligent and well-informed person in our 
whole country ; and more especially as that great de- 
bate and Mr. Lincoln's acts and deeds during the 
period covered by the Civil War is an open book, 
with the contents of which you are all familiar. It 
is my purpose to relate facts which bear upon his 
youthful days and the incidents of his young man- 
hood, which are personally known to me ; incidents 
which may seem small in themselves, but wliich yet 
serve to show and illustrate his habits, traits of his 
character, the impulses of his heart, his sense of humor 
and his habits of melancholy — in a word, his peculiar 
and varied moods in all the affairs of his life, whether 

13 



they were great or small, private or public, and to tell 
you what I have known personally of his pure, kind, 
gentle, decided, and steadfast life. 

Mr. Lincoln was an unusually sensitive and con- 
scientious man at all times and in every relation of 
life, and never, either in his youth or manhood, did 
he knowingly do wrong to any person or any cause. 

More than thirty-five years have passed since his 
tragic death. More than sixty eventful years have 
gone by since he bade farewell to New Salem and the 
friends of his early manhood and settled in Spring- 
field, where he commenced the practice of law along 
with the late Major John T. Stuart, who had been his 
colleague in the Illinois Legislature of 1836. There 
is probably not a man or woman living there to-day 
who was of adult age when Mr. Lincoln left the town 
of New Salem. 

As I stand in the presence of veterans who 
participated in the greatest military conflict which 
occurred during the nineteenth century, I realize 
that not many years will intervene before the last 
person who has ever taken Mr. Lincoln by the hand, 
and looked into that kind and familiar face, will have 
passed from the earth. So I feel that it is well for 
those who knew him personally as a neighbor and 
friend, to gather up the facts, great and small, which 
have been known to us personally, or which have been 
related without prejudice or partiality concerning him, 
and record such facts and incidents for the benefit and 
instruction of those who come after us. In narrating 

14 



events and recalling the incidents which gather about 
and cling to the story of his life it is my purpose, and 
my only purpose, to adhere strictly to the truth in re- 
calling those events and incidents, so that those who 
follow us will know the real man, the true, the im- 
mortal Lincoln. 

Let me repeat, if the story of his life is truthfully 
and courageously told — nothing being either colored 
or suppressed, nothing false being either written or 
suggested — the coming generations will see and feel 
the presence of the living man. 

Let us not be oversensitive about Lincoln's origin 
and ancestry. If his birth was humble, and if he was 
descended from that innumerable class whom we des- 
ignate as the poor, and if he was recognized and re- 
garded during his entire career as one of the laboring 
people of the world, then these environments of this 
great man are indisputable evidence that he knew from 
experience the severe struggles and the necessities of 
self-denial which were woven into and became the woof 
of the life and ambitions of an heroic manhood. These 
human experiences were of necessity a priceless dis- 
cipline to a soul inspired ; to a man of exalted ambi- 
tion and unyielding determination to gain a place and 
wield a power among men for the purpose of uplift- 
ing the race, and for the benefit of his country and 
mankind. 

It is true that Mr. Lincoln was ambitious, but his 
was a laudable ambition. He once said to his closest 
friend, Joshua Speed, that he did not wish to die 

15 



until the world was better for his having lived 

blaJel' ''Vl^'" f '^''' "^^^^ '^'^ -^= ^ beautiful, 
blameless and beneficial life. Compare his life and 
career w,th that of Napoleon or Bismarck. No re- 
membrance of hardships, or cruelty, or of innocem 
b.ood spilled, disturbed Lincoln's composure If h^ 
made mistakes it was to pardon the offenses and save 
the lives of youthful soldiers who had been con- 
demned to be shot for sleeping on their posts 

I first met Mr. Lincoln in 1836, more than sixty 
.vears ago^ He was then residing at New Salem, where 
he was Deputy Surveyor under Thomas Neale, and 
also Postmaster at that village. He had then served 
aTalr '" "'^ Legislature of Illinois and was 
eTctL fnt1:V°' l'^^' '" *•= Legislature at the 

i^e there '' '" t' '°"°""'"^ ^"?-'- ^t that 

time there was something about this ungainly and 

poorly clothed young man that foretold to an observ- 
ing person a bright future in public and political Tfe 
At his meeting we had a dinner on that day at the 
Rutledge Tavern in New Salem; and afterwards dur^ 
.ng our journey along the road from New Salem to 
Huron, where Mr. Ninian W. Edwards, who w^ ° 

we ihe, ':.„':;r™ " -^-ifr. '- -'^i-^ of what 



we then called the "talk- betwee"! E dwlrd 
and my father. Some time afterwarS M. 
lt:lL ^'T^ ' '-other-in-Iaw of Mr. Lincoln 



What was said about Lincoln during that conve ation 
I now remember as distinctly and fividly as If Thad 



16 



occurred only on yesterday. Among other things my 
father said to Mr. Edwards, "Edwards, that young 
man, Lincohi, will some day be Governor of Illinois." 
I was then only a lad ten years of age and thought 
my father was a very hopeful prophet. I had seen at 
Springfield two Governors of Illinois, Ninian Edwards 
of Belleville and Joseph Duncan of Jacksonville. These 
two Governors often came to Springfield and were 
always well dressed. Each came in his carriage, with 
fine horses and olored drivers. Mr. Lincoln up to 
this time had only been a captain of Volunteers in the 
Blackhawk Indian War and had served one term as 
a member of the Legislature. He did not then look to 
me like a prospective Governor. I then had in my 
mind's eye those stately gentlemen, Edwards and 
Duncan, but it seems that my father's foresight was 
much better than his son's, for in a little over twenty 
years this poorly clad and unknown young man was 
the chosen ruler of a nation numbering fifty millions 
of people, and was commander-in-chief of more than 
a million men — of a more efifective and potential army 
than Caesar or Napoleon had ever marshalled in battle 
array. 

Of Mr. Lincoln's birth and ancestry little need be 
said. That is a subject about which he was never 
communicative. His early days in Hardin County 
were days of pinching poverty and lustreless obscurity ; 
these were the pathetic years of an innocent childhood 
which, however, he never cared to recall and linger 
over as a pleasant memory. We can have no doubt 

17 



when we consider what we know of the history of the 
first seven years of his Hfe spent in the log cabin on 
Nolan's Creek, Hardin County, Kentucky, that he was 
poorly clad and scantily fed. After his father moved 
to Spencer County, Indiana, he lived in a little half- 
faced camp for one year ; the second year of his In- 
diana life a log cabin took the place of the camp, but 
this cabin was without window, door or floor for a 
long time. 

Food was abundant and game was plentiful ; deer, 
bear, wild turkeys, ducks, and fish in every stream. 
There were wild fruits of many kinds in the summer 
months, and these fruits were gathered and dried for 
winter use. Potatoes were about the only vegetable 
raised in abundance, and ''corn dodger" was the daily 
bread of the Lincoln household. The supply of gro- 
ceries and cooking utensils was limited. His mother 
died in Indiana in the year 1818 of a prevailing dis- 
ease of that country known as the "milk sick." In 
the year 1819 Lincoln's father went back to Kentucky 
and returned to his Indiana cabin with a second wife, 
in the person of the widow Johnson. There came with 
Lincoln's father and his new wife three of the second 
Mrs., Lincoln's children by her first husband. The 
second Mrs. Lincoln was a woman of great gentleness, 
thrift and energy. The new wife promptly made the 
Indiana cabin homelike ; and effectually and cheer- 
fully taught all the children habits of cleanliness and 
comfort. The boy — Abraham Lincoln — soon became 
very fond of his new mother, and remained so all the 

18 



years of his life. One of tlie gracious things Mr. 
Lincohi did — an incident which shows the kindness of 
his heart and his affectionate disposition — was that, 
soon after he was elected president and before leaving 
his Springfield home to be inaugurated President of 
the United States, he paid this mother, who then lived 
in Coles County, a farewell visit. In speaking of her 
he always called her his "angel mother." For ten years 
after his father's second marriage he lived at his 
father's home, laboring on his father's farm, except 
when his father hired him out to his neighbors to hoe 
corn, pull fodder, harvest grain, cut wood and make 
rails. 

During these years he read all the books he could 
get possession of. He was hungry for books and read 
them intently all of his spare time, studied and com- 
prehended their contents. He had no taste or inclina- 
tion for nor was he given to any kind of sports, unless 
it was to run foot races and "wrastle" with the boys, 
at which he was an adept. Wrestling and foot races 
were a means of recreation to young Lincoln, a pastime 
at which he was almost uniformly a winner. 

In the year 1830 his restless father again moved; 
this time to Illinois, and settled in Sangamon County. 
Here he built a log cabin and made rails sufficient to 
fence in ten acres of land for a farm. 

This was the last work that Lincoln did for his 
father. Having now arrived at his majority he left 
home and started out into the world to shift for him- 
self, carrying what clothes he had, except those he 

19 



wore on his person, in a bundle at the end of a stick 
or cane thrown over his shoulder. During the winter 
of 1836-37 he and his step-brother, John Johnson, and 
his cousin, John Hanks, hired out to a trader named 
Denton Offutt, to take charge of and pilot a flat-boat 
down the Mississippi River to New Orleans. The flat- 
boat was loaded with country produce which Offutt 
had gathered up in the country about New Salem. 
This produce was needed and was marketable in the 
Creole city of the South. It consisted of such things 
as butter, lard, eggs, bacon, pickled pork, turnips and 
cabbage. Failing to purchase a suitable boat, Lincoln 
and Hanks built one for Ofifutt at Sangamon, on the 
Sangamon River, six miles northwest of Springfield. 
On his way down the Sangamon River the boat stuck 
on the dam built for Rutledge's mill, just beside the 
village of New Salem, and for nearly a whole day it 
hung, bov/ in the air, stern in the water. In this con- 
dition shipwreck for the boat seemed almost certain. 
The villagers of New Salem turned out in a body to 
see what the strangers would do to save their boat, 
and while the sight-seers suggested and advised, a tall, 
big fellow of the crew worked out a plan of 
relief and succeeded in tilting his craft over the dam 
and then proceeded on the way down the Sangamon. 
This was Lincoln's second trip to New Orleans. There 
he witnessed a public sale of slave negroes. A young 
mulatto girl was placed on the block, and as the 
auctioneer was calling for the highest bidder white 
man after white man walked around the auction block, 

ao 



handling the girl as you would feel the points and 
parts of a horse. Lincoln became incensed and out- 
raged at this sight. He turned and walked away and 
expressed to his companion his hatred of slavery, say- 
ing to his step-brother, "If ever I get a chance to hit 
the system of slavery I will hit it hard." He kept his 
word — the proclamation of emancipation. 

There was something about the people in the village 
of New Salem which fascinated Lincoln. On his re- 
turn from the South, after a brief visit to his old 
home, he went back to New Salem, settled there, and 
spent the next seven years of his early and eventful 
life there. Here he lived, loved, hoped, worked and 
sported to the extent of wrestling with the boys and 
running foot races with the athletes — laughed and 
joked, grew merry or serious, as his varied moods 
impressed his mental disposition. Here he made fast 
friends and commenced his wonderful political career. 
Here he, as clerk of the election board, performed his 
first official act. Here he became acquainted with 
Green and Armstrong, Kelso and Duncan, Alley and 
Carmer, Herndon and Radford, Hill and McNamara, 
Rutledge and Berry, and many other pioneers of the 
vicinity. New Salem soon became to him what Venice 
was to Byron, ''A fairy city of the heart. Of joy the 
sojourn, and of wealth the mart." There w^ere here to 
be found the best specimens of the pioneer settler, 
hearty, industrious, kind and courageous men and 
women. As a physician of early days I knew them 
intimately and loved them well. I knew their foibles, 

31 



which were superficial, and their virtues, which were 
innate and lovable. Lincoln's first permanent employ- 
ment was as a clerk in the store of Offutt, where he 
continued until the spring of 1832. That was the year 
and time when the Indian War broke out, upon the 
return of the Indian chief, Blackhawk, and his band, 
with the purpose of reoccupying their old homes in the 
Rock River country. When the Governor of Illinois 
called for soldiers Lincoln volunteered, was elected and 
served as Captain of his company during the Black- 
hawk War. 

After the defeat of Blackhawk at the battle of Bad 
Axe and the close of the war, he returned home and, 
in partnership with Berry, bought a store and became 
a merchant in general country trade. He soon dis- 
covered he was not a success as a merchant and sold 
his stock of goods, and was appointed Postmaster of 
New Salem by President Martin Van Buren. To help 
out a living he became a Deputy Surveyor — having ac- 
quired by his own eflforts sufficient knowledge of geom- 
etry and the art of surveying to equip him for that 
work. He was afterwards twice elected a member of 
the lower house of the General Assembly, and during 
these years he studied law and frequently appeared be- 
fore Justices of the Peace as counsel or attorney for 
those interested in such suits. He was soon licensed 
to practice law, which profession he pursued in Illi- 
nois successfully until he was elected President of the 
United States. In the spring of 1837 he moved to 
Springfield and commenced his enlarged life as a 

22 



lawyer, and then entered into a partnership with Major 
John T. Stuart, with whom he had served in the Leg- 
islature. Here he met and contended at the bar with 
the brightest and ablest lawyers of the State, such as 
Stephen T. Logan, Edward D. Baker, Lyman Trum- 
bull, Colonel John J. Hardin, N. M. Purple, Murray 
McConnell and Stephen A. Douglas. It is not going 
too far to say that Lincoln held his own before judge 
and jury with the best legal talent of the State. 

To show Lincoln's care of trust funds and his un- 
flinching and unswerving integrity I mention this inci- 
dent. I know that after he had moved to Springfield 
Mr. James Brown, the traveling postoffice agent or 
inspector, came into Robert Irwin's store in Springfield 
and inquired where he could find Mr. Lincoln, whom 
he said was former Postmaster at New Salem ; that 
he. Brown, wished to collect the money of the United 
States still in Lincoln's possession. The late William 
Butler being present at the interview between Brown 
and Irwin said to Mr. Brown, "I will see Mr. Lincoln 
at my house at dinner and get him to call on you at 
the hotel." When dinner time came Mr. Butler told 
Mr. Lincoln that Mr. Brown was in town and what 
Brown's business was. Mr. Butler, thinking that Mr. 
Lincoln might not have the money to settle his post- 
ofiice collections, said to Lincoln, 'T will let you have 
the money to settle up your postoffice account." Lincoln 
replied, *T thank you very much, but I have all the 
money in my trunk which belongs to the Government." 
The identical silver, consisting of quarters, twelve and 

23 



one-half cent pieces, or ''bits" as we called them, and 
"picayunes," had been safely put away by Lincoln in 
an old sock which he had placed in his trunk, ready 
any day for an immediate settlement of his official ac- 
count. If every man handling Government or other 
trust funds was as careful as Lincoln was there would 
be no defalcations. 

Mrs. Dallman, wife of ex-Alderman Dallman, de- 
lights in telling how kind both Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln 
were to her many years ago when she lived in her 
small home just across the street from where the 
Lincolns lived. It was when little Thomas Lincoln 
was a nursing child; Mrs. Dallman became very sick, 
had no help, and an infant girl to take care of. She 
relates that Mrs. Lincoln often nursed her little child, 
and Mr. Lincoln rocked the cradle until her baby was 
happily asleep. 

There was not a particle of avarice in Lincoln's 
mental make-up. Greediness of wealth was absolutely 
foreign to his nature. He wanted money sufficient to 
pay the ordinary living expenses of his household, 
but he did not care for gold just because he loved to 
have and handle it. To illustrate this statement I will 
relate a little story of our college society, of Illinois 
College — the Phi Alpha Literary Society — and his con- 
nection with said society. It was customary for this 
society to give a series of lectures during the college 
year, the profits of which were expended in the pur- 
chase of books for the society library. Mr. Lincoln 
was engaged to deliver one of these lectures. After 

24 



his lecture was over and the audience had left the hall 
in which the lecture was given, he recognized the fact 
that the audience was not large and therefore the re- 
ceipts must have been rather small. Mr. Lincoln, with 
a kind smile, said to the president of the society, **I 
have not made much money for you to-night." In 
reply the president said, ''When we pay for the rent 
of the hall, music and advertising and your compensa- 
tion, there will not be much left to buy books with for 
the library." ''Well, boys, be hopeful ; pay me my rail- 
road fare and 50 cents for my supper at the hotel and 
we are square." That showed our subject's kindness 
and liberality all over, yet at that day he was not bur- 
dened with cash and could have found good use for 
a few extra dollars. He thought our poor society 
needed the money more than he did. 

Mr. Lincoln after his arrival in Springfield boarded 
at the house of Mr. Butler, the second house west of 
my father's home. I often observed him as he passed 
to and fro from his meals to his office. He usually 
walked alone, his head inclined as if he were absorbed 
in deep thought, unmindful of surrounding objects 
and persons. Although he had his wonderful gift of 
humor, I venture to assert that in the long run of 
years life was to him serious and earnest. 

He once said to Joshua Speed, his close friend, 
"Speed, when I am dead I wish my friends to remem- 
ber that I always pluck a thorn and plant a rose when 
in my power." He roomed with Speed over Speed's 
store on the west side of the public square in Spring- 
field. 

£5 



If asked what in my opinion were the marked qual- 
ities of his mental organization, or, in other words, 
what were the salient traits of his character, I would 
reply, his kindness and patience, his integrity, humor, 
patriotism and ambition, and his mental and physical 
courage. His integrity is proved by all his acts, pri- 
vate, public and official. He never betrayed a cause, 
a party, or a friend. His kindness and humanity were 
innate and he was always considerate of man, beast, 
or bird. He was ambitious, but sought public position 
because he expected always to benefit his country and 
his kind. 

I am not prepared to say that the domestic 
home of Lincoln was ideal, but I do say, without 
hesitation, that it was a happy home. The husband 
was kind and considerate, the wife bright, impul- 
sive, educated, generous, industrious and lovable ; 
a good wife and a fond mother. This much I feel it 
my duty to say, on this anniversary of his birth, that 
in the Lincoln home, vv'liere many of us, his and her 
life-long friends, have partaken of their hospitality, 
that Lincoln's home was to be envied and imitated. 

His moral courage was potent and sublime, as often 
shown in the Legislature of Illinois, in the Congress 
of the United States, and his patriotic, wise and effi- 
cient administration of the national Government in 
that critical period of the war between the States. His 
love of justice and right was manifest to all in every 
act of his entire life. During the long and dreary days 
of the war his patience and kindly heart w^on the ad- 
miration of all his countrymen. 

26 



By his decision of character and avowal of his con- 
victions that the slave-holder had no right to hold a 
slave in the territories of the Union, he lost a Senato- 
rial race in 1858, only to win the Presidency in i860. 

I venture to say that no man was less elated by 
prosperity or less depressed by adversity. He was so 
mentally balanced that he could calmly share triumph 
or endure defeat. 

I am sure that I am not extravagant when I 
state that in my opinion the law was not his 
first love; he adopted the profession of law as a means 
of livelihood. But I am sure that more likely he 
adopted the profession of law as the most direct road 
to, and which would lead to, his promotion in a polit- 
ical career. I think he felt always much more interest 
in, and loved to discuss, political issues and afifairs 
of state, more than he did to consider questions in- 
volved in legal transactions and lawsuits, about busi- 
ness and dealings between man and man. 

He was anti-slavery in his heart and in his head. 
He had intense feelings on that question, and the 
grievous wrong of slavery aroused his kind nature to 
earnest opposition to its spread and extension into new 
territory. He would consent to abide its existence in 
the State where the Constitution protected the system, 
but from his early manhood, like Henry Clay, he 
hoped for its ultimate extinction, either by colonization 
in Africa or by paying slave owners a money con- 
sideration for their slaves. 

Members of the Illinois State bar, judges of the 

27 



State courts and of the United States courts all coin- 
cide in the opinion that Lincoln was a very able and 
persuasive lawyer before a jury when he was on the 
right side of a case, and a very poor lawyer when he 
thought his client was in the wrong. He possessed 
in a very large measure that innate sense of justice 
which hindered him when retained on what he consid- 
ered the wrong side of a lawsuit to try sincerely to 
win an unjust victory for his client; nor would he 
undertake under any circumstance to make black look 
like white. He has been known to refuse his service 
as a lawyer when satisfied in his own mind that his 
proposed client had the wrong side of a case. 

Mr. Lincoln's language and literary style were pure- 
ly Anglo-Saxon. He was not a classical scholar, but 
his words were English, pure and clear. He had great 
power of condensation and used no unnecessary 
words. The common people understood his arguments 
and generally endorsed his conclusions. 

He summed up the doctrine of squatter sovereignty 
advocated by Stephen A. Douglas in the Kansas-Ne- 
braska issue, in these few words, that "If one man 
choose to enslave another, no third man shall be al- 
lowed to object." You may read many different lives 
of him, but you will find little said of him as a lawyer. 
His enduring fame belongs to him as an anti-slavery 
debater, a pure-minded and far-sighted statesman and 
a wise ruler of men. The wonderful contrast between 
his early and latter years best illustrate the possibili- 
ties of American citizenship. The poor boy, who 

28 



could scarcely reach the first round in the ladder, as a 
man in middle life stood upon the topmost round and 
then through his tragic death passed up to the realms 
of eternity as one of God's dutiful children. 

I experience a sincere pleasure when I recall the 
fact that when Mrs. Hill, of New Salem, heard any 
remark about Lincoln and Ann Rutledge she would 
tell of her recollections of a "quilting bee" at New 
Salem. She said that Lincoln was sitting next to Ann, 
and as the girl was industriously using her needle, 
Abraham was softly whispering in her ear, and Mrs. 
Hill was wont to say that she noticed the rose 
color flushing in the cheek of Ann, that her heart 
throbbed quicker, and that Ann's soul thrilled with a 
joy as old as the world itself. 

Upon the same subject I will relate what Isaac Cog- 
del tells of his interview with Lincoln in December 
after his election as President. Cogdel called to see 
him and Lincoln requested him to wait until 
his other callers from a distance went to 
their hotels, so that he might inquire about 
his old friends in Menard County. The visitors 
having retired they both drew their chairs close to the 
fire. There in the quiet twilight Lincoln inquired after 
his old New Salem friends, their sons and daughters, 
when and whom they had married, and how they had 
prospered. When he had told Lincoln all, he said, 
"Mr. Lincoln, I would like to ask you one question." 
Lincoln promptly replied, "Well, Isaac, if it is a fair 
question I will answer it." "What is the truth about 

29 



you and Ann Riitledge?" ''Isaac, I dearly loved the 
girl, and I never to this day hear the name Rutledge 
called without fond memories of those long past days." 

He was modest, was rather retiring than pushing 
himself forward in society. He never sought to be 
conspicuous. Even after his great debate with Doug- 
las and after he had been named for President by a 
great party he was disinclined to notoriety. When 
Mr. Scripps, of the Chicago Tribune, v/ent .to Spring- 
field to visit Lincoln and gather from him materials 
for a campaign biography, Lincoln hesitated whether 
to aid the publication or not. He said to Mr. Scripps, 
"There is no romance, nor is there anything heroic in 
my early life ; the story of my life can be condensed 
into one line, and that line you can find in Gray's 
Elegy, 'The short and simple annals of the poor.' 
This is all you or any one can make out of me or 
my early life," What pathos ! — recalling the early 
days of his childhood- — those years of penury and 
want ! 

It has been always, since Mr. Lincoln's tragic death, 
a great pleasure to me to recall the incidents, and to 
indulge in refreshing my recollection of particular 
events, which in some way or other have been con- 
nected with the first meeting and interview I had with 
him after he was elected President in November, i860. 
That meeting was to me personally a very memorable 
incident. This meeting and the interview I had with 
Mr. Lincoln then occurred in the Governor's chambers 
of the old Capitol Building or the "State House," as 
it was then called. 

30 



It is needless to say here that all, or nearly all, of 
the citizens of Springfield, and the people of Sanga- 
mon County for that matter, were wild with delight 
and uimsually enthusiastic over the result of the elec- 
tion in November, i860. It was an especially interest- 
ing event to me, and I have always regarded it as one 
of the most important and fascinating incidents of my 
life. I had been nominated by the Republican party 
for the office of State Senator in the Twelfth Sena- 
torial District of Illinois, to be voted for at that elec- 
tion. That Senatorial District in which I was a can- 
didate for Senator then consisted of the Counties of 
Sangam.on and Morgan. 

My opponent for State Senator at that election was 
the late Honorable Murray McConnell, of Jackson- 
ville, Morgan County. He had been nominated and 
vigorously supported by the Douglas "Popular Sov- 
ereignty" wing, or faction, of the Democratic party. 
McConnell was a distinguished man, an accomplished 
lawyer, a shrewd politician, and in short a man very 
hard to beat for an important political office, in a 
Senatorial District which had been for many years 
exuberant in its Democratic ''Popular Sovereignty" 
proclivities. The contest between Mr. McConnell and 
myself for State Senator at that election v/as not only 
very strenuous, but purely partisan, as between the 
Douglas Democrats and the Republicans. 

It was quite spirited, for the reason that the vote 
of the Senator for that District might determine the 
re-election of Lymian Trumbull to his seat in the 

31 



United States Senate from Illinois. Trumbull had 
been elected United States Senator on the 8th of 
February, 1855. His election had been secured 
through a combination of the "Old Whigs," the 
"Know-Nothings," "Free Soilers," "Abolitionists," 
and an unorganized political faction then known as 
"Anti-Nebraska Democrats." 

The main question then before the public, and the 
question which created party alliances, was desig- 
nated as the "Anti-Nebraska" question. The Gen- 
eral Assembly of Illinois then met at tbe State 
Capitol in the month of December, 185.1. pursuant to 
the Constitution of 1848. The great issues which di- 
vided the members of that Legislature into political 
factions grew out of that illogical, futile and ridiculous 
doctrine of "Popular Sovereignty." 

The members of the Legislature of Illinois, elected 
in 1854, consisted of fourteen straight Democratic 
Senators and eleven Anti-Nebraska Senators ; and the 
lower house consisted of thirty-four straight Demo- 
crats and forty-one who were radically opposed to the 
silly propositions of "Popular Sovereignty" and the 
pro-slavery record and purposes of the Democratic 
party. 

Mr. Lincoln had been, but without his knowledge, 
nominated in 1854 by the opponents of the "Popular 
Sovereignty" advocates for a seat in the lower house, 
in the session which was to meet in December, 1854, 
but because he had been looked upon as the repre- 
sentative of the Anti-Nebraska men, and as it was 

33 



generally understood that he was to be a candidate 
for United States Senator to succeed General James A. 
Shields, Mr. Lincoln, after having been assured that a 
majority of the members of the Legislature of Illinois 
were opposed to and would vote against the re-election 
of General Shields, refused to receive his credentials 
as a member elected to the lower house of the General 
Assembly, although he had been chosen by the people 
for that office by a majority of 600. 

A special election to fill the vacancy was called in 
the Springfield District after Lincoln had declined. At 
that special election Mr. Jonathan McDaniel, an old 
resident of the eastern part of Sangamon County, an 
unchangeable and "dyed-in-the-wool" Democrat, was 
elected to fill the vacancy occasioned by the refusal of 
Mr. Lincoln to serve. It was said pleasantly of Mr. 
McDaniel, who was unfamiliar with and inexperienced 
in legislative proceedings, that the only rule he had 
for determining how to cast his vote as a member of 
the Legislature was to keep track of the way the 
Honorable Stephen T. Logan cast his vote, and when 
Logan, whose name preceded that of McDaniel on 
the roll call of the house, voted on any question which 
came before the Legislature, to cast his vote in op- 
position to the vote of Stephen T. Logan. 

Many of the members of the lower house of that 
General Assembly afterwards became, or were then, 
important and active factors in the political 
affairs of Illinois. Among the number of the lower 
house were James A. Allen, who was afterwards de- 



33 



feated by Richard Yates for Governor of Illinois in 
i860; William R. Morrison, who was for a number 
of years afterward a member of Congress from Illi- 
nois, and subsequently a member of the Interstate 
Commerce Commission also; George T. Allen, Henry 
S. Parker, Joseph Gillespie, Chauncey L. Higbee, 
who was afterwards for many years one of our Cir- 
cuit Judges, Lewis H. Waters, Amos C. Babcock, 
Henry C. Johns, Gen. Thomas J. Henderson, after- 
wards for many years a member of Congress from 
the Princeton District of this State, and now one of 
the National Trustees of the Soldier's Home, Robert 
Boal, G. D. A. Parks of Will County, the famous 
Owen Lovejoy, Miles S. Henry, Thomas J. Turner 
and L. W. Lawrence. Most of these men subsequently 
attained great distinction in public affairs, and most 
of them rendered conspicuous and distinguished serv- 
ices on the question of human liberty, and on ques- 
tions relating to the public welfare in their day and 
generation. 

When the question of the election of a United 
States Senator came before the General Assembly in 
1854, the members of that body so cast their votes 
on joint ballot, that Mr. Lincoln received the votes 
of 45 ; Gen Shields received the votes of 41 ; Lyman 
Trumbull received five votes ; Gustave Koerner re- 
ceived two votes; and William B. Ogden, Joel A. Mat- 
teson, William Kellogg, Cyrus Edwards, Orlando B. 
Ficklin and William A. Denning each received one 
vote. Every member elected to the General Assem- 

34 



bly for that year was present and voted on the elec- 
tion of United States Senator, except Randolph 
Heath, a Democrat from Crawford County — at least 
there is no record of Mr. Heath having cast any vote 
for any candidate on the question of the election of 
a United States Senator. The five members who 
had agreed to support Lyman Trumbull in any emer- 
gency were John M. Palmer, Burton C. Cook and 
Norman B. Judd, members of the Senate ; and George 
T. Allen and Henry S. Baker, of Madison County, 
who were members of the lower house. Ten ballots 
were cast in the joint convention of that General As- 
sembly, and on the tenth ballot Lyman Trumbull was 
elected to the United States Senate to succeed Gen. 
James A. Shields. 

If the five members who so heroically and valiantly 
supported Trumbull could have been persuaded to cast 
their votes for Mr. Lincoln, it is certain that Lincoln 
would have been elected Senator, because it is now a 
matter of history that Judge Joseph Gillespie, who 
had cast his vote for Cyrus Edwards and Amos C. 
Babcock, who had cast his vote for Mr. Kellogg, 
would have changed their attitude and voted for Mr. 
Lincoln, which would have secured his election. 

I crave your pardon for digressing here a moment, 
to pay a well deserved tribute to the memory of 
John M. Palmer, Norman B. Judd and Burton C. 
Cook, who were State Senators in that Assembly, re- 
spectively, from Macoupin, Cook and LaSalle Coun- 
ties, and to George T. Allen and Henry S. Baker 

35 



of Madison County, who were members of the lower 
house. These patriotic citizens and lovable men have 
long since gone on that "long journey whence no 
traveler returns." They were great and good men, 
serviceable to the people of their day and generation. 
They were all faithful, efficient and heroic; they were 
known to belong to that unselfish class of men who 
"loved their neighbors as themselves" and who in 
the career of their useful lives were stars of liberty 
and beacons of freedom. These were the five valiant 
and hopeful men, who stood so fearlessly, loyally 
and unflinchingly for the election of Lyman Trumbull 
to the United States Senate in the month of Febru- 
ary, 1855. The loyalty of these distinguished men to 
their chosen candidate for Senator, who together with 
the political sagacity, generous impulses, noble heart, 
and unselfish motives of Abraham Lincoln made it 
practicable to elect Lyman Trumbull Senator. Trum- 
bull subsequently served faithfully and courageously 
in that highest and most powerful legislative body in 
the world for the period of eighteen eventful years. 
It is a sufficient honor to Lyman Trumbull to say that 
upon the suggestion of Lincoln he drafted, introduced 
and had carried through the Congress of the United 
States, the 13th Amendment to the Constitution. That 
Amendment established in due form that fundamental 
proposition which is the basis of our national govern- 
ment and political institutions, namely, that "all men 
are created equal and have certain inalienable rights, 
among which are life, liberty and the pursuit of hap- 
piness." 

36 



It may not now Impress us as we press forward in 
the light of liberty, and are beckoned onward by the 
winsome smile of freedom at the close of the bril- 
liant era of the 19th Century, that these past inci- 
dents are of any serious consequence ; but they are 
all blended with the life and career of Abraham Lin- 
coln, whose great courage, great heart and far-sighted 
wisdom gave the year of jubilee to a race. 

It is an axiom that the fall of empires and the fate 
of nations frequently hang on the "hazard of a die," 
and it is equally true that ''Httle drops of water and 
little grains of sand make the mighty ocean and the 
beauteous land." I have always been impressed with 
the conviction that Lincoln's attitude and the political 
wisdom displayed by him in the events which led up 
to the election in 1855 of Lyman Trumbull to the 
United States Senate, was one of those incidents which 
materially aided in nominating Lincoln by the Re- 
publican Party, and to his election by the American 
People to the Presidency of the United States. His 
illustrious career and his exalted ideas of the duties 
and obligations of that high place are matters of his- 
tory. But I urge upon you, my veteran friends, to 
remember that great men belong to the infinite. They 
are at once brothers of the mountains and the seas. 
They rise up among the moiling multitude like the 
tall cedars of Lebanon, and cast their hopeful shadows 
over all that is holy, through the eons of eternity. 
The grandeur of manhood was never surpassed by 
that which enveloped the immortal soul of Abraham 

37 



Lincoln. The soul of man is the gift of God, and in 
His keeping, and we should not hesitate to helieve, 
that when Lincoln, in his second inaugural address, 
uttered those undying: words: "With malice toward 
none, with charity for all," the divine precept which 
those words impl}^ were imparted to him by the lov- 
ing Father of us all. 

The political campaign of 1858 was really a con- 
test between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Doug- 
las as to whether Douglas should be re-elected to 
the Senate of the United States, or whether Lincoln 
should be elected by the Legislature of Illinois to suc- 
ceed him. This political contest was not only one in 
which the people of Illinois were seriously and earn- 
estly interested, but was a question which made the 
joint debates between Lincoln and Douglas of na- 
tional interest, and commanded most serious atten- 
tion among the people and all political parties in the 
United States. It was to me, personally, in 1858, a 
great pleasure to be then on friendly terms and in 
neighborly and political intercourse with Mr. Lin- 
coln. He then was not only friendly as a neighbor, 
but indicated to me frequently his confidence in my 
capabilities to accomplish certain things in behalf of 
the Republican party at that time. I knew the pur- 
pose he had in mind to deliver that famous speech 
which he did deliver before the Republican State Con- 
vention which met in Springfield in June, 1858. I 
knew from frequent conversations with Lincoln that the 
subject matter of that speech was of deep and abiding 

38 



interest with him. I knew that the principles which he 
proposed to announce in that speech caused him great 
anxiety, an anxiety which led him to call a caucus of 
his personal and political friends to consider with 
him and advise with him as to the propriety and wis- 
dom of announcing such principles as he proposed to 
announce in his speech at that time. At this caucus 
of Lincoln's friends the subject of his making such a 
speech announcing such principles was seriously, hon- 
estly and fully discussed, and Mr. Lincoln was some- 
what surprised that only one of the friends whom he 
had called about him, agreed with him in the political 
propriety and wisdom of making such declarations as 
he proposed to make in that speech. That one friend 
was his law partner, William H. Herndon. All the 
other gentlemen present at the caucus seemed fully to 
agree with Lincoln in advocating privately the prin- 
ciples which Lincoln proposed to announce, but they 
all, except Herndon, counseled Lincoln against the 
policy of making such a speech announcing such prin- 
ciples at that particular time, because they believed 
that if he assumed and proclaimed such a position it 
v^ould put a dangerous weapon in the hands of Doug- 
las with Vvdiich he might defeat Lincoln in the race 
for United States Senator. Lincoln listened to all 
such objections patiently and modestly, but when all 
objections had been made and considered Mr, Lin- 
coln rose and said : 

''My dear friends : The time has come when these 
sentiments should be uttered ; and if it is decreed 



39 



that I shall go down because of this speech, then let 
me go down linked to the truth — let me die in the 
advocacy of what is just and right. 

"In taking this position I do not suspect that any 
one of you disagree with me as to the doctrine which 
I will announce in that speech ; for I am sure you 
would all like to see me defeat Douglas. It may be 
inexpedient for me to announce such principles at 
this time, but I have given the subject matter the 
most patient, honest and intelligent thought that I 
am able to command, because I have felt at times, 
and now feel, that we are standing on the advanced 
line of a political campaign which in its results will 
be of more importance than any political event that 
will occur during the 19th century. I regret that 
my friend Herndon is the only man among you who 
coincides with my views and purposes in the pro- 
priety of making such a speech to the public as I 
have indicated to you ; but I have determined in my 
own mind to make this speech, and in arriving at this 
determination I cheerfully admit to you that I am 
moved to this purpose by the noble sentiments ex- 
pressed in those beautiful lines of William CuUen 
Bryant in his poem on 'The Battlefield," where he 
says — 

A friendless warfare! lingering long 

Through weary day and weary year ; 

A wild and many weaponed throng 

Hang on thy front, and flank and rear. 

40 



Yet nerve thy spirit to the proof, 

And blench not at thy chosen lot; 

The timid good may stand aloof, 

The sage may frown — yet faint thou not. 

Nor heed the shaft too surely cast. 

The foul and hissing bolt of scorn ; 

For with thy side shall dwell, at last 
The victory of endurance born. 

Truth, crushed to earth, shall rise again ; 

The eternal years of God are hers ; 
But error wounded, writhes in pain, 

And dies among his worshippers. 

Yea, though thou lie upon the dust 

When they who helped thee flee in fear, 

Die full of hope and manly trust 

Like those who fell in battle here. 

Another hand thy sword shall wield. 
Another hand thy standard wave 

Till from the trumpet's mouth is pealed 
The blast of triumph o'er thy grave. 

After reciting these significant lines, Mr. Lincoln 
continued : 

'T am aware that many of our friends, and all of 
our political enemies, will say that, like Scipio, I am 
'carrying the war into Africa ;' but that is an inci- 
dent of politics which none of us can help, but it is 
an incident which in the long run will be forgotten 
and ignored. 

"We all believe that every human being, whatever 

41 



may be his color, is born free, and that every human 
soul h.as an inalienable right to life, liberty and the 
pursuit of happiness. The xA.postle Paul said that 
'The just shall live by faith.' This doctrine, laid 
down by St. Paul, was taken up by the greatest re- 
former of the Christian era, Martin Luther, and was 
adhered to with a vigor and fidelity never surpassed, 
until it won a supreme victory, the benefits and ad- 
vantages of which we are enjoying today. 

'T will lay down these propositions in the speech 
I propose to make and risk the chance of winning a 
seat in the United States Senate because I believe the 
propositions are true, and that ultimately we shall 
live to see, as Bryant says 'The victory of endur- 
ance born.' " 

This was the closing incident of the caucus of Lin- 
coln's friends to consider wdiether or not he should 
make his proposed speech. It was probably that 
speech wdiich enabled Douglas to wdn the senator- 
ship, but it was one of the great things that Lincoln 
did which placed him in the Valhalla of the Immor- 
tals. That speech was one of the courageous things 
* which Lincoln did, and which warrants us in saying — 

" Thou art freedom's now, and fame's; 
One of the few immortal names, that were not born to die." 

At the outbreak of the Civil War, Gen. James A. 
Shields had become a resident of California, and while 
he had been for many years a member of the Demo- 
cratic Party, and had been elected to tlie United 
States Senate from both the States of Illinois 

42 



and Minnesota, he was quite loyal to the Union, but 
was always strongly influenced by the position which 
Stephen A. Douglas took in politics. Mr. 
Shields had read the speech made by Mr. Douglas to 
the joint session of the Legislature in Springfield in 
1861, — probably the most effective speech ever made 
by Douglas, in which with great eloquence and 
unanswerable logic he appealed to the people of his 
country to be loyal to the Union. In that great speech 
Mr. Douglas said, "That the first duty of the Ameri- 
can citizen was obedience to the constitution and the 
laws, and that in the contest then raised by the South- 
ern people there could be in this country but two par- 
ties — patriots and traitors. That it is a duty we owe 
to ourselves, our children and our God, to protect this 
Government and its flag from any and every assail- 
ant." This was the last and greatest speech ever 
made by Senator Douglas and was probably v/orth 
more to the cause of the Union than any speech that 
could have been made by any other man then living. 
Gen. Shields, after he had read that speech of Sena- 
tor Douglas, signified with great earnestness his in- 
tention of joining the Union Army as a soldier, and 
to help put down the Rebellion. He was recom- 
mended to Mr. Lincoln by the Hon. Jas. A. Mac- 
Dougall, who had previously been Attorney General 
of the State of Illinois, and was then (1861) in the 
United States Senate from California, and when Mr. 
Lincoln intimated his intention to appoint Gen. Shields 
a Brigadier General of Volunteers in the Union Army, 

43 



Senator MacDougall said, "I am glad you are will- 
ing to do this favor for our mutual friend Shields, be- 
cause I think it will convince Shields that you did 
not intend to kill him in the duel he challenged you 
to fight with him years ago, but I do not think it will 
convert Shields or persuade him to be a Republican." 
To MacDougall's pleasant remarks, Mr. Lincoln re- 
plied, "It makes no difiference to me what party Gen. 
Shields may belong to. My only object is to save 
the Union, and it has frequently occurred to me that 
I would like to give Shields a chance to have his fight 
out with some other man than me. What you say 
about Gen. Shields reminds me of a story." "What 
story is that, Mr. President?" said MacDougall, and 
Mr. Lincoln replied that "We once had in Spring- 
field a colored family, the head of which was what is 
known as a 'no account nigger.' He would get drunk, 
whip his wife, and scold his children, but he would 
not work or take proper care of his family. This 
colored family belonged to the church, and the wife 
becoming impatient with her husband's conduct, went 
and consulted the pastor of the church to which 
they belonged, as to what she should do with her 
worthless husband ; and after retailing to the pastor 
the bad conduct of her husband and his neglect of his 
duties to his family, the pastor said to her, 'Be pa- 
tient with your husband and set him a good example, 
you will pour coals of fire on his head in that way' ; 
to which advice of the pastor, the wife replied : 'That 
would do no good ; I have already poured bilin' water 

44 



on him, and it don't scarcely take the dander out of 
his hair.' But I think I will appoint Shields Brigadier 
General, and let him have his fight out with the men 
who once pretended to be his political friends." 

I again ask you to indulge me briefly. I began to 
relate to you the incidents of my first meeting with 
j\Ir. Lincoln after his election as President. This 
meeting occurred, as I have said, the day subsequent 
to the election in November, i860. I had on that day 
received a telegram from Jacksonville, informing me 
that I had carried Morgan County for State Senator 
against Murray McConnell by eight votes, and it oc- 
curred to me that Mr. Lincoln would be glad to know 
that fact ; so I took the telegram and handed it to 
Mr. Lincoln while he was holding an informal recep- 
tion to the general public in the old "State House." 
He read it carefully and handed it back to me with a 
pleasant smile, and said encouragingly, "Why, that 
elects you. Bill." Pleasant and appropriate greetings 
were exchanged at that time between us, and I recol- 
lect that Mr. Lincoln said to me, jocularly, "You 
seem to succeed as well in politics as you have suc- 
ceeded in pills." "If I were as lucky as you are in 
politics, and strong enough to beat as good a man as 
Murray McConnell in a Democratic District for State 
Senator, I would change my sign so that it would 
read *Dr. William Jayne, Purveyor of Pills and Poli- 
tics. I guarantee the cure of Democratic Headaches 
and all the ailments of Popular Sovereignty Cranks. 
No cure, no pay !' " 

45 



What would have been the history of reconstruction 
had Mr. Lincoln survived to serve through his second 
term v/e cannot tell ; but it has often occurred to me 
that the country, and especially the Republican party, 
v/ould have escaped much of the humiliation and dis- 
grace heaped upon it by the condition and political 
management of the Northern carpet-baggers, who 
through the support of the ignorant blacks of the 
South dominated the control of. the political 
offices, State and Federal, of m.any of the Southern 
States. The kind and firm hand of Lincoln would 
never have permitted this blot of carpet-baggism upon 
the fair name of our reconstruction of the States. In 
the heart of that noblest of men there was no hatred 
of any man or section of his country ; there dwelt 
sweet peace and sublime humanity. The restoration 
of the Union after April 9, 1865, was the first object 
for which he lived. Let us believe reverently that 
Lincoln through all coming time will stand side by 
side with George Washington among the illustrious 
men of the world. 

I witnessed the inauguration of Mr. Lincoln on the 
4th of March, 1861. The first three days of March 
were quite warm. Sunday, March 3d, was a delightful 
summer day. The soft, mild breezes from the South 
which came up to Washington city to mark the quiet 
Sabbath of the last day of James Buchanan in the 
White House, and the loosening of Buchanan's hold 
on the destinies of a national government was spring- 
like, and filled with fragrance from the land of the 
orange and the magnolia. 

46 



After a crimson sunset the wind seemed to rise and 
came in fitful gusts, quick and sharp as the evening 
advanced. During the evening of Sunday the wind 
shifted to the west, and on the morning of the 4th 
the sky was overcast with clouds and the wind came 
from the north. By ten o'clock the temperature had 
changed thirty degrees, but notwithstanding the 
frosty, biting air, Pennsylvania avenue was crowded 
with a mass of moving humanity. That cold, bleak 
day fitly illustrated the stormy and tempestuous path 
which he was entering upon. That rugged and peril- 
ous road he trod cautiously, warily. Yet with calm- 
ness and fortitude, determined above everything else 
to preserve the Union of the States. The dark and 
dangerous days of storm and battle were foreshad- 
owed by the forbidding weather of that inauguration 
day — the very air was portentous. The rising mur- 
murs of discontent came on every breeze wafted from 
Virginia, Georgia, the Carolinas and all the Southern 
States. These murmurings and threatenings were but 
the prekide to the crimson tempest and blood through 
which Lincoln passed in triumph. But at what a cost 
of men and treasure ! The liberty loving people from 
New England, from the great Central States, from 
the far West, from the valleys of the Ohio and the 
Mississippi, had come one hundred thousand strong, 
not to v/itness the achievements of the arts of peace, 
but to be present at the beginning of a new era, which 
would make the Republic of Washington foremost in 
the nations of the earth. In the presence of the as- 

47 



sembled citizens, Abraham Lincoln, with Stephen A. 
Douglas, who held Lincoln's hat, and Edward D. 
Baker on either side, with bare head and hand up- 
lifted, was sworn to support, maintain and defend the 
Constitution of the United States. As long as liberty 
remains, as long as Christianity and civilization are 
the legacy of the race, will history record how faith- 
fully that sacred vow was fulfilled ! 

The closing scene of his life was too cruel to dwell 
upon. With the surrender of Lee at Appomattox, 
just as benign peace smiled upon a reunited country, 
and when alluring prospects of prosperity, tranquilty 
and contentment were spread out before his delighted 
vision, and when the evening of his life promised to 
be blessed with the love and reverence of a grateful 
people — darkness and death came. In an instant his 
brain was paralyzed by a missile conceived in the 
malice and hurled by the fury and hatred of a frenzied 
assassin. 

Unconsciously he passed from life to death ; 
thus fulfilling that fancy, vision or foreboding, which 
came to him years before. In the deepening twilight, 
when reclining for repose on his couch in his own 
home, while he was musing in silence and sadness on 
the past, present and future, he beheld on the mirror 
hanging in his room two contrasting views of his own 
features, one in the vigor of health, and one wearing 
the paleness of death. This vision disturbed him — 
he spoke to his wife about it, and seemed to regard it 
as an ill-omen which portended and foreshadowed 

48 



misfortune to him. Probably in a brief time this 
depressing incident vanished from his mind. 

Strange and mysterious are the ways of Providence. 
We can but submit to the supreme will of that in- 
finite Intelligence which made and governs the uni- 
verse. 

When Illinois called for her dead, silently the re- 
mains of Lincoln were borne through cities and states 
amid signs and tokens which were emblems of woe. 
His pallid face, worn with lines of care and anxiety, 
were looked upon by unnumbered souls. His old 
home was at last reached. The casket which con- 
tained all that was mortal of Lincoln was there placed 
in the great hall of the capitol which had been so 
often the silent witness of his intellectual combats 
and triumphs. Men, women and children came from 
everywhere to pay the tributes of honor to their be- 
loved President. The old and the young bowed in 
great sorrow and anguish and pressed around the 
casket and gazed for the last time upon the well 
marked and familiar features of that kind face. That 
heart which had always throbbed "in charity for all, 
and malice toward none" was now stilled in death. 
Rcquiescat in pace. 

There is little doubt as to the place which will be 
assigned to the War President in the final judgment 
of mankind. Let us believe — nor should this belief 
be in vain — that the pitiless and impartial historian, 
when he has measured, weighed and analyzed the 
great historic characters of nations, w^ill deliberately 

49 



pronounce that among the marked rulers among men 
he was not surpassed by any man of any age. All 
that is physical and mortal now repose peacefully in 
the quiet of Oak Ridge, in that crypt of fame, be- 
neath that stately monument of granite erected by a 
grateful people ; but the divine existence, the gra- 
cious spirit of that God-inspired man are not there. 
The thought, the intellect and spirit of that great heart 
and soul will survive in the unknown beyond, and will 
live on and endure, while the years of eternity roll. 

•'And so they buried Lincoln? Strange and vain! 
Has any creature thought of Lincoln hid 
In any vault, 'neath any coffin lid. 
In all the years since that wild Spring of pain? 
'Tis false ! He never in the grave hath lain. 
You could not bury him although you slid 
Upon his clay the Cheop's pyramid, 
Or heaped it with the Rocky Mountain Chain. 
They slew themselves ; they but set Lincoln free. 
In all, the life of his great heart beats as strong, 
Shall beat while pulses throb to chivalry 
And burn with hate of tyranny and wrong. 
Whoever will may find him, anywhere 
Save in the tomb, not there — he is not there !" 

In the world's Pantheon of heroes and martyrs there 
will be graven by the hand of Truth the name 
Abraham Lincoln. 

Lincoln was a man of peace ; he never sought a 

50 



controversy or quarrel, and he never retreated under 

fire. 

His religious views and opinions have been discussed 
again and again. I believe that Mr. Lincoln was by 
nature a deeply religious man. But I have no evidence 
that he ever accepted the formulated creed of any 
sect or denomination. I know that all churches had 
his profound respect and support. 

Was Abraham Lincoln a religious man? Upon 
this question philosophers may hesitate, and quibbling 
infidels may doubt, but we must believe from the 
deeds done by, and the sentiments unhesitatingly and 
unmistakably uttered by this honest and upright man, 
that these are the best, controlling, and undisputable 
testimony of the religious nature and life, and of his 
clearly pronounced religious hopes, and of his en- 
during and abundant religious faith in the relations 
between God and his immortal soul. 

It is now beyond the realm of controversy that 
Lincoln loved, honored and revered Almighty God. 

The Christian religion is a feeling of reverence 
towards the Creator and Ruler of the world, together 
with all those acts of worship and service to which 
that feeling leads. The secure foundation, the very 
root of this divine sentiment exists in the nature of 
man, and in the circumstances in which he is placed. 
It manifests itself abundantly even where the one 
supreme God of the Christian is unknown. Man, 
being naturally religious, if he is ignorant of the true 
God, he must and will create false ones for himself. 

51 



He is surrounded by dangers and difficulties ; he sees 
the almighty powers of nature at work everywhere 
and in all things. These powers are pregnant to him 
with hope and fear. They are inscrutable in their 
workings, and beyond his comprehension and con- 
trol. There arises therefore the feeling of dependence 
upon something more powerful and more wise than 
himself. This feeling is the very germ and essence 
of religion. 

It was this feeling which prompted Lincoln to join 
reverently in the religious services of the First Pres- 
byterian Church of Springfield when the congregation 
sang ''Jesus, Lover of My Soul, Let Me to Thy 
Bosom Fly." It was this inexpressible power of re- 
ligious feeling, dwelling in Lincoln's heart, which 
moved him to request the Rev. Dr. Smith, pastor of 
the First Presbyterian Chuch at Springfield, to have 
sung, at the funeral services which were held at the 
burial of his little son Thomas, who died at Spring- 
field and to whom Mr. Lincoln so pathetically re- 
ferred in the last touching farewell address he made 
to his old neighbors and friends when he left his home 
for Washington to be inaugurated President of the 
United States, those beautiful and expressive lines, 
**My faith looks up to Thee, Thou Lamb of Calvary, 
Saviour Divine." 

It was this feeling, this sense of relying upon the 
Creator of the universe which prompted him to say 
on that occasion to Dr. Smith that the most impres- 



52 



sive and comforting words he ever heard sung are 
these: 

"While hfe's dark maze I tread, 
And griefs around me spread, 

Be Thou my guide; 
Bid darkness turn to day, 
Wipe sorrow's tears away, 
Nor let me ever stray 

From Thee aside." 

It was this sacred impulse which dominated his 
good heart and inspired him to exclaim in the closing 
paragraph (which it was my good fortune to hear 
him utter) of his first Inaugural Address when he 
said ''We are not enemies but friends, we must not 
be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it 
must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic 
cords of memory stretching from every battle-field 
and patriot grave to every living heart and hearth- 
stone all over this broad land will yet swell the chorus 
of the Union when touched, as surely they will be, 
by the better angels of our nature." 

When Lincoln wrote the affectionate letter of 
condolence to that good mother whose five sons had 
"died gloriously on the field of battle," and said to 
her, 'T feel how weak and fruitless must be any words 
of mine which should attempt to beguile you from the 
grief of a loss so overwhelming. But I cannot re- 
frain from tendering to you the consolation that may 

53 



be found in the thanks of the RepubHc they died to 
save. I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage 
the ang-uish of your bereavement and leave you only 
the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the 
solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly 
a sacrifice upon the altar of Freedom" was he not 
then — Nov. 21st, 1864, — actuated by a religious senti- 
ment "pure and undefiled"? If the Christian hope 
and faith, did not then permeate his loving and ten- 
der heart, why should he write to that bereaved 
mother, "I pray that our Heavenly Father may as- 
suage your bereavement"? 

May we not, now, religiously and faithfully be- 
lieve, that when the martyred President wrote those 
inspired words to that stricken mother he sincerely 
felt as Job did when he said, "I would speak to the 
Almighty," and exclaimed, "Hear now my reasoning, 
and hearken unto the pleadings of my lips." * * * 
"My stroke is heavier than my groaning." "Oh that 
I knew where I could find Him, that I might come 
even to His seat ;" and did not this faithful man 
feel as Job felt when the patriarch, in the excruciat- 
ing agony of inexpressible pain uttered those words 
of faith, "though He slay me, yet will I trust in 
Him"? 

Can we hesitate to believe that when Lincoln said 
on Sept. 28, 1862, "I happen to be an humble instru- 
ment in the hands of our Heavenly Father as I am, 
and as we all are, to work out His great purposes ; 
I have desired that all my works and acts may be 

54 



according to His will, and diat it might be so, I have 
sought His aid ; but if, after endeavoring to do my 
best in the light which He affords me, I find my efforts 
fail, I must believe that for some purpose unknown 
to me He wills it otherwise? Could these sentiments 
have been uttered by any other than a God-fearing, 
God-loving and religious man? 

It was the holy influence of religious feeling, — that 
divine power which binds immortal man to the ever 
living God, — that inspired him, in pronouncing 
the famous address he made when he was the 
second time inaugurated President of the United 
States, in referring to the great civil contest which 
he then fervently hoped would soon close and be 
followed by a permanent peace, to declare : "Both 
read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and 
each invokes His aid against the other. It may 
seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just 
God's assistance in wringing their bread from the 
sweat of other men's faces; but let us judge not, that 
we be not judged. The prayer of both could not be 
answered. That of neither has been answered fully. 
The Almighty has His own purposes. 'Woe unto 
the world because of offenses, for it must needs be 
that offenses come, but woe to that man by whom the 
offense cometh.' If we shall suppose that American 
slavery is one of those offenses which, in the Provi- 
dence of God, must needs come, but which having 
continued through His appointed time, He now wills 
to remove, and that He gives to both North and South 

55 



this terrible war, as the woe due to those by whom 
the offense came, shall we discern therein any de- 
parture from those divine attributes which believers 
in the living God ascribe to Him ? Fondly do we 
hope — fervently do we pray — that this mighty scourge 
of war may speedily pass away. Yet if Good wills 
that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bonds- 
man's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil 
shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn 
with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with 
the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so 
still it must be said, ''that the judgments of 

THE LORD ARE TRUE AND RIGHTEOUS ALTOGETHER/' 

''With malice towards none ; with charity for all, 
with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the 
right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in." 

You are to be especially congratulated, my veteran 
friends, because in offering this honor to the memory 
of Lincoln at the close of the 19th Century, you are 
placing a mile-stone, which shall be a muniment to 
the progress of liberty ; an enduring sign for all who 
shall come after us and a beacon of light for all men 
who struggle, and hope for the welfare and glorious 
destiny of the human race. 

It will honor those who survive you, to inscribe 
upon the monuments which will indicate the place of 
your final rest those beautiful words : 

"Brave men, who, rallying to your country's call, 
Went forth to fight, — if Heaven willed, to fall ! 

56 



Returned, you walk with us through sunnier years, 
And hear a Nation say, God bless you all. 
''Brave men, who yet a heavier burden bore. 
And came not home to hearts by grief made sore ! 
They call you brave, but so you grandly live, 
Shrined in the Nation's love forevermore !" 

Veterans of the Memorial Hall Association : I can- 
not adequately express to you how deeply I appre- 
ciate your unselfish efforts to properly honor and 
celebrate the birthday of Abraham Lincoln. I regard 
it as supreme evidence of your undivided loyalty to 
the great principles for which Lincoln lived and gave 
up his life. Youbelongto that diminishing class of men 
who once marched on your journey to the temple of 
liberty at the command of Abraham Lincoln, and 
who fought for freedom over roads cleared by bayo- 
nets and moistened with blood. You marched beneath 
a flag that is now clean. It had blood on it once. 
Not a stain now. Its stripes were once the emblem 
of barbaric slavery. They have become the auroral 
lights of freedom. 

In this service you pay a proper tribute to the mem- 
ory and life of the greatest, wisest, noblest and most 
illustrious man of the 19th Century. I know you will 
join me in spirit and sentiment wdien I say in the 
language of that American poet, whom Lincoln loved 
and honored, because he said of another of Ameri- 
ca's heroic Presidents: 



57 



"Follow now, as ye list ! The first mourner to-day 
Is the Nation, whose father is taken away ! 

Wife, children and neighbor may mourn at his 

knell, 
He was iover and friend' to his country as well. 
For the stars of our banner, grown suddenly dim, 
Let us weep in our darkness — but weep not for him ! 
Not for him, who departing leaves millions in 

tears ! 
Not for him, — who has died full of honor and 
years ! 
Not for him — who ascended Fame's ladder so high, 
From the round at the top he has stepped to the sky." 



58 



PRESS OF 

UMBDENSTOCK-FRISKEY PORTER CO 

CHICAGO 






'2yt^: 



